GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS OPEN APRIL TONIGHT IN REMATCH WITH COMETS
Apr 1, 2023TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The Rochester Americans (32-25-4-3) continue their push to the playoffs tonight as they open the final month of the regular season with a rematch against the Utica Comets (31-24-6-3). Game time from The Blue Cross Arena is slated for a 5:05 p.m. start and will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
The Amerks have earned 13 out of a possible 18 points over their last nine games and come into the weekend with points in each of their last five home games, going 3-0-1-1 over that span dating back to their 2-0 shutout win over Laval on March 15. The team begins today in a three-way tie for second-place in the North Division standings with Utica and Syracuse.
LAST TIME OUT
Trailing 3-0 entering the third period, the Amerks reeled off three straight unanswered goals, including the game-tying tally with 1:34 remaining, before Linus Weissbach sealed the win in the shootout for the second straight week to cap a wild 4-3 come-from-behind win over Utica on Friday.
Mason Jobst (1+1) and Brett Murray (0+2) both notched a multi-point effort for the Amerks. Michael Mersch tallied his 16th marker of the campaign before Isak Rosen added his 12th to complete the scoring in regulation. Ethan Prow, Lukas Rousek and Lawrence Pilut all logged an assist.
Goaltender Michael Houser turned aside 33 shots in regulation before stopping all three Comets shooters in the shootout.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
With seven games remaining in the 2022-23 regular season, Rochester is tied for second place in the AHL's North Division standings, six points ahead the Laval Rocket, who currently lead the Cleveland Monsters by one point for the fifth and final playoff spot.
A total of seven points is all the Amerks need to clinch a playoff berth for what would be the team's fourth straight playoff appearance dating back to the 2018 postseason.
Including last year's memorable postseason run which saw Rochester advance to the North Division Finals, the Amerks have qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs 47 times in the past 66 years.
SUBBAN SHOULDERING THE WORKLOAD
After suffering a defeat in his season-debut, Subban has gone 17-12-4 since over his last 33 starts, including seven straight wins between Dec. 10 to Jan. 14. The seven-game win streak was the longest of his pro career.
He was the first Amerks goaltender to post seven straight wins since Jonas Johansson won nine consecutive contests during the 2019-20 campaign.
Subban had arguably his best performance of the season during a 75-save weekend in Rochester’s two-game sweep over the Charlotte Checkers in mid-December. A night after stopping a regular-season career-high 45 saves, Subban was flawless in a 30-save shutout on Dec. 17, his first in the AHL since April 8, 2017, with the Providence Bruins.
It's the first time Subban has had multiple shutouts in a season since earning three during the 2014-15 campaign with Providence. He established a new career-high for wins (17) in last Sunday's win over Cleveland.
ROUSEK OFF AND RUNNING
After an injury limited him to just 19 regular-season games during his rookie campaign, forward Lukas Rousek has taken his first full season by storm.
A 2023 AHL All-Star selection, Rousek currently leads the Amerks in assists (37) and points (52) in 64 games while his 15 goals are tied for fifth-most.
Rousek, a sixth-round selection of the Buffalo Sabres in 2019, made his NHL debut on Monday, scoring a goal and adding an assist while logging 9:03 of time.
He scored his first NHL goal on his first shot on his first shift, the first Sabres player to do so since Ethan Prow.
He's the 27th player in Sabres franchise history to score a goal in their NHL debut with Buffalo and the 186th overall to record the first goal of their career as a member of the Sabres.
Rousek also added an assist later in the game, and by doing so, became the first Sabres skater to record a goal an assist in their NHL debut with Buffalo since former Amerk Maxim Afinogenov on Nov. 10, 1999 vs. Boston.
Coming into tonight, Rousek shows 41 points (11+30) over his previous 49 games, including 13 points (4+9) in his last 11 appearances.
SHARING THE WEALTH
After producing three 20-goal scorers last season, the Amerks could potentially have five or more by the season's end.
Jiri Kulich (22) and Brett Murray (21) have already cracked the mark, both doing so in last Sunday's win over Cleveland, while Linus Weissbach is within reach with a career-high 18 goals.
With Kulich and Murray becoming the first players this season to reach the 20-goal mark, the Amerks have now had at least one player from all but two seasons (excluding the COVID-19 shortened 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons) in the 67-year history of the franchise score 20 or more goals dating back to Bronco Horvath’s team-leading 37 tallies during the Amerks’ inaugural 1956-57 campaign.
The last time Rochester had at least five different 20-goal scorers in the same season was during the 2018-19 campaign when the team had six.
PROWESS ON THE BLUELINE
Entering the Jan. 19 game against Laval, Ethan Prow was the only Amerks defenseman to appear in every game this season. Overall, he has skated in 129 of the 135 games dating back to the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
In 60 games this season, Prow, who recorded his first three-point outing of the season on March 10 against Hartford, is tied for 17th in scoring amongst all AHL defensemen with 37 points while his 31 assists are currently 16th-most at his position. This season marks the fourth straight in which the veteran defenseman has reached the 20-assist mark and the fifth consecutive year with 20 or more points.
The seventh-year pro has posted 25 points (4+21) in his last 35 outings dating back to Dec. 28 and comes into tonight with two goals and 16 assists over his last 25 games.
EARNING THEIR STARS AND STRIPES
With 12 points (5+7) over his last 19 games, Linus Weissbach is 12 points back from the team-lead with 40 points (18+22) through 63 games. By scoring his 18th goal and 38th point of the season back on March 12 against Toronto, he established career-highs in both categories, surpassing the marks he set during his rookie campaign in 2021-22.
Brett Murray, one of six Amerks with at least 40 points on the campaign, has captured career-highs in all offensive categories from last season, including goals (21), assists (24) and points (45). The fourth-year pro comes into tonight with 19 points (7+12) in his last 21 games and has recorded at least one shot in all but five games during that span dating back to Nov. 23.
With seven points (4+3) over his last 21 games, Sean Malone reached the 20-point mark in back-to-back campaigns for the first time in his career. Through 46 contests in his fifth season with the Amerks, Malone has 13 goals and 13 assists.
Amerks captain Michael Mersch shows 32 points (15+17) over his last 40 games dating back to Dec. 17. More impressively, with 41 points in 54 games, he reached the 40-point mark for the sixth time in his nine-year pro career. The former Calder Cup winner is also a five-time 20-goal scorer, reaching the mark four times in his first five seasons and again last season when he scored a career-high 26 goals.
Through 59 games, defenseman Jeremy Davies established a career-high with 11 goals, reaching the mark for the first time in his pro career while also becoming the first Amerks defenseman this season to do so. Over his last 21 games, Davies has collected five goals and seven assists for 12 points.
Rookie Isak Rosen has posted 18 points (9+9) in 30 games since Jan. 21. In the 7-1 victory over Springfield, Rosen, the Sabres’ first-round selection (14th overall) in the 2021 NHL Draft, notched his first-career three-point game as well as his first-ever two-goal outing. Overall, four of his 12 goals on the season have come while on the power-play. Rosen is one of only two rookies this season to reach the 30-point mark.
Mitch Eliot tied his previous career-high in goals (3) at Providence on Feb. 26, reaching the mark in 24 fewer games than the 2021-22 campaign.
A JOBST WELL DONE
Mason Jobst has made the most of his second opportunity with the Amerks as the fourth-year pro is in the process of assembling a career-year.
Through 54 games this season, the Speedway, Indiana, native has already established career-highs in all offensive categories, including goals (14), assists (20) and points (34).
With an assist in the 2-1 loss in Hershey on March 18, Jobst reached the 30-point plateau for the first time in his pro career, becoming the ninth different Amerk this season to eclipse the mark.
Since the turn of the New Year, Jobst has amassed 11 goals and 20 points over his previous 28 games, including his first career hat trick in the 7-5 loss to the first-place Toronto Marlies back on Jan. 14. He comes into tonight with seven goals and 14 points over his previous 16 games, a stretch highlighted by a career-best three-game goal-scoring streak.
Jobst has totaled 47 points (18+29) over 80 career games with the Amerks dating back to last season.
WORKING OVERTIME
Last night's shootout win over Utica was the sixth time in the last eight games -- and the 18th overall -- that went beyond regulation.
The Amerks are 6-5 in overtime this season and show a 4-3 mark in shootouts.
Rochester (.563) is one of 15 teams in the AHL this season with a .500 or better winning percentage in overtime games.
Rochester tied an AHL record with 29 overtime games in 2017-18.
KEEPING IT KULICH
Ever since returning from an impressive showing at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship in January, Jiri Kulich has not only emerged as one of the team's most consistent point-getters, but as the top prospect in the Buffalo Sabres pipeline.
The third of Buffalo's three first-round picks in last year's NHL Draft, Kulich currently leads the Amerks and is tied for seventh amongst all AHL rookies with 22 goals while his 42 points are tied for ninth-most,
With Kulich becoming the first player this season to score 20 goals, it marks the first time the Amerks had a rookie 20-goal scorer in back-to-back seasons (Jiri Kulich in 2022-23, Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka in 2021-22) since Drew Stafford in 2006-07 and Clarke MacArthur in 2005-06.
Kulich, the youngest regular player in the AHL, is only the fourth player in league history to score more than 20 goals during his 18-year-old season (turning 19 after Jan. 1) and first since Robert Dome of Syracuse recorded 21 in 1997-98. Kulich also becomes just the second Amerks player in franchise history to reach the mark as an 18-year-old since Jozef Cierny scored 27 during his only season in Rochester in 1992-93.
He was named the AHL's Player of the Week for period ending Feb. 26 after totaling six points while leading Rochester to its first three-win weekend.
SCOUTING THE COMETS
Utica comes into tonight tied for second place in the AHL's North Division standings with a 31-24-6-4 overall record and have a 4-4-0-2 mark in its last 10 contests. The Comets are currently in a three-way tie with both Syracuse and Rochester in the North Division.
The Comets come to Rochester fueled by leading point-getter Graeme Clark as he tops all Utica skaters with 22 goals and 51 points, both of which are career-highs from last season. Third-year defenseman Reilly Walsh shares the team-lead with 29 assists, which includes four in the last seven games, while appearing in all but one game for the Comets this season.
Nico Daws (14-12-3) and Akira Schmid (10-6-4) have shared the goaltending duties for a majority of the season for Utica. Schmid recently returned from a recall with the New Jersey Devils, where he shows an 8-5-2 record in 17 games. Prior to his recall, Schmid posted double-digits in wins for the second consecutive season. Daws, meanwhile, matched his win total from last season after winning three of his last four outings following a winless streak that saw him go 0-6-1 from Jan. 13 to Feb. 20.
SERIES NOTABLES
With Austin Strand making his Amerks debut against Hartford on March 10, he became the 38th overall player to appear in one game with the Amerks in 2022-23 and the 15th defenseman. He was also the 19th different player to don the red, white and blue colors for the first time in their career.
Amerks defenseman Mitch Eliot played his first two pro seasons with the Comets during the team's affiliation with the Vancouver Canucks. In 53 games with the Comets, he produced four goals and nine points.
Of Rochester's remaining seven games, they will face the Comets twice more, with one final get-together slated for next Saturday back in Utica.
Last Saturday's win in Utica gave the Amerks their seventh straight 30-win season dating back to the 2015-16 campaign (excluding the abbreviated 2020-21 season). It also was the third straight game the Amerks went to a shootout, marking the first time since November 2017 the team appeared in three consecutive games which ended in a shootout.